G4 faster than P4 1.7?

[KLowD9x]

Realy need someone to confirm this, I got boared the other day and was looking around the apple website. Whilst looking I found the G4 processor (top speed of 866Mhz :D ) and it is proposed to be faster than the P4 processor.

[sfa ok]

Apple says a lot of things. I doubt a single G4@866 could outperform a P4@1700 in most applications (the G4 may be able to beat the P4 in Photoshop)

[KLowD9x]

whys that?

[sfa ok]

Apple has VERY biased benchmarks. They are special purpose machines, they are good at one thing, and they do that one thing well: multimedia. Video, audio, and photo editing applications are often built for the Mac platform, so they do very well on the G4. The G4 wouldn't be faster for everyday computing.

[MrOOBiLL]

It sure does seem funny that they only bench on photoshop... ;) :D :D

[KLowD9x]

true

[Ebola]

just wait for rugby to see this and then the debate will break out.

[ken257]

I use/own both PC's and Macs. I do love Macs for some tasks they just can't be beat. For most things the G4 and Pentiums seem to run close mhz for mhz. There are those few operations though where the mac really shines but overall a P4 1.7 is going to be faster for most operations. Thse of us that use Macs use them for other reasons they are just my personal pref for graphics and video manipulation as well as web page design.

[William]

Their gigaflop claim used a four or five year old benchmark for Mac OS. That was when the G4 first came out. Yes, they bench everything is a series of extremely select applications that have been tuned to perfection with MAC OS. If you are a graphics guy, Mac OS may be better. Personally, I like to be able to use 85% of the software in the world and can wait an extra two seconds for that filter to complete. Plus, I will save a buttload of cash in the process.

[theflyingrat]

G4s aren't really even especially good for graphics applications - most high-end rendering/CAD video cards don't even support the macintosh platform - they're usually strictly NT/2000 supported only. And, without a really good video card, the CPU can only do so much. One reason so many people use Macs (even where I work) is because there are many de facto standards in the large-scale printing industry that are usually only released in programs for Macs. I'll try to post more details, but out of 450 users I help support, only 4 use Macs, and that is why. In order to send a file to have it printed from many advertising/printing agencies, the work needs to be in a file format that is only used a small number of programs for Macintosh.